TV Licence A Joke

Jaysus lads, what a load of mis-informed nonsense (with the exception of FosterDollar and Superhoops)

I work for a well known national broadcaster and one of my best mates is a supervisor in the Licencing Section of An Post (we're very popular ;) )

On that basis here's some facts -

1) The TV licence is nothing to do with RTÉ. As explained above it's a government licence - collected by An Post with some of it passed onto RTÉ and some going to independent producers. TV3 refuse to take any of it as they reckon it would compromise their independence. It's purpose is to help fund public service broadcasting.

2) Again, as explained above, the licence is to cover your household NOT each TV in the house.

3) There is nobody passing on names and addresses to An Post. They work of the electoral register. We haven't yet arrived at Big Brother style government, although McDowell may be working on it as we speak. No retailer is obliged to hand over that information.

KOH

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WeAreRovers

3) There is nobody passing on names and addresses to An Post. They work of the electoral register. We haven't yet arrived at Big Brother style government, although McDowell may be working on it as we speak. No retailer is obliged to hand over that information.

KOH

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As someone who worked in TV Licence Administration I can categorically refute WAR's third point.

As part of the legislation Wirelsss Telegraphy Act 1926, Broadcasting Act 1988 et al, retailers or renters of Wireless Apparatus, capable of receiving or being modifed to receive radiowaves within a certain spectrum are legally obliged to furnish details of all those who purchase said equipment. It rarely happens these days.

There are statutory requirements along with Ministerial Orders which requires others to furnish details of possible premises where TV's can be found.

It's not only the electoral register which is used for tracking. BTW it is an individual premises which is required to be licensed not the householder, thus for example hotels only need one licence.

have to say i am happy enough with rte.
for €150 i get good news coverage, bag loads of sport throughout the year and the odd decent film scattered in. Some better music programmes would be preferable. Granted, there is a lot of tripe on it too, but enough decent programming to substantiate the licence fee
i would not like to be depending on tv3 for their tabloidesque news.

wouldnt dream of paying murdoch €30/month (or whatever it is) for their sky coverage either. football shown on rte is sufficient. for additional football i prefer to go to the local club games, or hit the pub for some epl games.

I'd be happier to pay it if there was a properly conducted charter for the viewing/listening public.

Soccerc - I've no idea about the legal requirement but my mate in An Post only works off the electoral register - they have no other information.

For instance they have no proper list of businesses with TVs. Mind you he has tried to bust Bohs and Shels at various times. Unfortunately Bohs had a licence and Shels quickly went out and bought one. ;)

As you probably know, the Licencing section of An Post is where they dump the drunks, wasters and general ne'er do wells (my buddy not included of course) so it's not surprising that they have no resources either.

An Post will lose the Licence collection soon enough anyway. The ESB is the best bet for collection.

KOH